Millennial Media Plunges 43%: Q2 View Misses, CFO Departing

By Tiernan Ray

Shares of advertising tech provider Millennial Media (MM) are down $2.29, or almost 43%, at $3.06, in late trading, after the company this afternoon missed Q1 revenue expectations, but reported a smaller-than-expected net loss, forecast Q2 revenue well below consensus, and said its CFO will step down.

Revenue in the three months ended in March rose 47%, year over year, to $72.6 million, yielding a 4-cent loss per share.

Analysts had been modeling $75.5 million and a 6-cent loss per share.

For the current quarter, the company expects revenue of $70 million to $75 million, which is well below the $96.4 million the Street has been modeling.

The company said its reach at quarter’s end was “650 million monthly unique users globally.”

CEO Michael Barrett remarked,

Now into my first full quarter, I am pleased with my decision to join Millennial Media and drive this Company to the next level. While I would have liked to have seen stronger performance in the quarter, we have developed an aggressive strategy and I have high confidence that we can execute and capitalize on the growth and promise of mobile.

The company said CFO Michael Avon will step down at the end of the current quarter “to pursue other interests.” He has been CFO since 2009. The company is searching for a replacement.

Millennial has been lauded as a bet on online advertising by some analysts, such as Oppenheimer & Co.‘s Jason Helfstein — see the note yesterday.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.